TEENAGERS spent hours preparing their CVs for a job interview only to be told to leave, because they were in college.

Seventeen-year-old Roxanne Walker-Loveridge and Nicole Loy, 16, both from North Swindon, called into Lush in Swindon town centre to inquire about part-time work.

The New College students were told to come back the following day for a group interview, but within minutes were asked to leave.

Lush has described the saga as an unfortunate incident and has asked the students to send through their CVs again.

The girls were not warned against applying before they turned up at the group assessment.

“We saw an advert in the window of Lush advertising work and went in to find out what the interview was like,” said Roxanne. “No one asked if we were in college.

“We rushed home and spent a lot of time preparing, as it was our first proper job interview. We were quite excited.”

During the interview about 30 applicants were split into groups, but only about a quarter remained after all the college students made their early exit, said Roxanne.

“There was just a handful of people left in the interview,” said Roxanne. “The rest of us were all pretty shocked. It came across as quite rude. It was like someone stepping on our dreams – like someone had blown the fire out.”

Lush’s head of retail Amanda Layzell said:. “Lush positively encourages students to apply for part-time and Christmas positions.

“In fact, some of Lush’s senior management started with the company when they were students and worked their way up through the business. We are aware of this extremely unfortunate incident and we are looking into the matter.”

The company is now happy to receive the CVs of the students involved and said it runs a graduate scheme for students to remain after they finish studying.

Roxanne added: “Everyone finds it hard to get work and this put a dampener it.”

CVs can be emailed to Lush at jobs@lush.co.uk.